Below you will find information on NHC’s national events, which are designed to help address specific policy challenges and identify related solutions.

Upcoming Events

NHC and Center for Housing Policy National Conference

Solutions for Sustainable Communities: 2011 Learning Conference on State and Local Housing Policy

Washington, DC • September 26-28, 2011

Given the severe fiscal challenges that they face, states and localities are looking for more efficient ways of utilizing existing resources to achieve their housing, transportation and environmental goals.  Solutions for Sustainable Communities will arm practitioners and policymakers with the best available information on how states and localities are working collaboratively and creatively across these different policy silos to develop more sustainable and inclusive communities while reducing overall government costs.  

Solutions for Sustainable Communities will be designed to be useful to both newcomers and experienced practitioners and policymakers by offering a comprehensive, highly interactive educational experience over the two-and-a-half day conference.  The conference will include opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, mobile workshops, facilitated discussions, panel discussions, networking receptions and breakfasts, and plenary sessions.

Past Events

Annual Federal Budget Forum

2011 Budget Forum

Washington, DC • Friday, February 25, 2011

The 2011 NHC Budget Forum examined housing-related requests in the President's FY 2012 Budget Proposal, highlighted critical affordable housing research and discussed the outlook for housing programs in both the FY2011 and FY2012 budgets and beyond.

NHC and Center for Housing Policy National Symposium

Partners in Innovation: Including Affordable and Workforce Housing within Transit-Oriented Development
Denver, CO • Monday, September 27, 2010

This national symposium will examine the challenges and opportunities for developing and sustaining Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) that includes affordable housing opportunities for working families. The symposium will be a comprehensive, highly interactive educational experience that will include opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, panel discussions, training workshops, plenary sessions and a networking reception. 

NHC, the Innovative Housing Institute, PolicyLink, and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest Present:

National Inclusionary Housing Conference
Washington, DC • November 3-5, 2010

The National Inclusionary Housing Conference will serve as an important educational and policy analysis forum for practitioners of inclusionary housing, representatives of localities that are considering the adoption of inclusionary programs, developers of inclusionary communities, attorneys, academics, and advocates. Participants will discuss best practices and find answers to challenges that arise with any inclusionary housing program. The conference also seeks to build bridges between key constituencies who often disagree over policy options to address the affordable housing crisis.

NHC and Center for Housing Policy National Conference

Solutions for Working Families: Learning Conference on State and Local Housing Policy
Chicago, IL • June 28-30, 2009

NHC and the Center hosted the Solutions for Working Families: Learning Conference on State and Local Housing Policy, which brought together more than 400 state and local leaders from across the nation.

This semi-annual learning conference is designed to help participants identify policies that have been successful in other communities and could also work in theirs. Solutions for Working Families includes sessions for housing policy veterans and newcomers, presentations tailored to state- and local-level policy issues, mobile workshops, facilitated discussions and roundtables designed to help participants learn from the experts and connect with their peers.
 

NHC, the Housing Partnership Network and the Affordable Housing Institute Host World Habitat Day-Related Event

Mission Entrepreneurial Entities: Essential Actors in Affordable Housing Delivery
Washington, DC • Thursday, October 8, 2009

In partnership with NHC Member Partner the Housing Partnership Network and the Affordable Housing Institute, NHC hosted this World Habitat Day-related event covering a new study, Mission Entrepreneurial Entities (MEEs): Essential Actors in Affordable Housing Delivery, which examines the characteristics of MEEs, their role and importance in housing delivery and their principles of success.

MEEs are defined as private companies – usually nonprofit housing companies – whose focus is on change-making that involves developing sustainable organizational and financing infrastructure for the creation of affordable housing. By converting ideas and resources into tangible results, in the form of successful housing developments and outcomes, these organizations play an important part in developing communities and also serve to influence change in both policy and economic realms.

Panelists for the event included:

• Gaynor Asquith, principal, arc4 Consulting, Manchester United Kingdom
• Thomas Bledsoe, president, Housing Partnership Network
• Ray Christman, former CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
• Carol J. Galante, deputy assistant secretary for multifamily programs, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Michael Pitchford, president and CEO, Community Preservation and Development Corporation
• Debra Schwartz, director of program related investments, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• David Smith, CEO, CAS Financial Advisory Services (moderator)

For more information, please see the resources below.
MEE Study Presentation
MEE Report Extracts and Selected Exhibits

About World Habitat Day

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day, with the idea being to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The day is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

NHC and MacArthur Foundation Partners in Innovation Symposium

 Partners in Innovation: A Dialogue on Federal, State and Local Rental Preservation Solutions
Washington, DC  • March 17, 2009

NHC partnered with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to host a symposium entitled Partners in Innovation: A Dialogue on Federal, State and Local Rental Preservation Solutions, which brought together experts from across the nation to discuss the vital role that preserving affordable rental homes can play to help address the current housing crisis.

Key public officials, such as U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, spoke throughout the day about the important role that the Federal government can play in supporting innovative approaches to state and local rental housing preservation.

Specifically, the event featured three plenary discussions highlighting the work of 12 states and cities who were recently awarded a total of $32.5 million in grants and low-cost loans – including Denver, Florida, Iowa, Los Angeles, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon and Portland, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington and Seattle – to launch projects to preserve affordable rental homes for more than 70,000 families as part of the Foundation's Window of Opportunity Initiative. Representatives speaking about model preservation programs supported by the Foundation in New York City and Cook County, Illinois, were also featured at the symposium.

For more details, and to view resources from this symposium, please click here.

Annual Federal Budget Forum

2010 Budget Forum

U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC • Friday, March 12
The NHC 2010 Federal Budget Forum provided a detailed overview of programs and initiatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) included in the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Proposal, with a particular emphasis on rental housing and homelessness assistance programs.